Ted Buchan & Co Purchases 492 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Ted Buchan & Co grew its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,202 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 492 shares during the quarter. Ted Buchan & Co’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $623,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Altria Group by 3,786.6% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,698,585 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,055,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in Altria Group by 415.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,935,000 after purchasing an additional 793,327 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its stake in Altria Group by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,916,000 after purchasing an additional 670,858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP acquired a new stake in Altria Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,613,000. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on MO shares. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com raised Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Barclays boosted their price target on Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.33.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of MO stock opened at $54.05 on Friday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $39.25 and a 1-year high of $55.05. The stock has a market cap of $91.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.13, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $51.50 and a 200-day moving average of $48.81.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.82% and a negative return on equity of 233.80%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $1.02 dividend. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.55%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 68.92%.

About Altria Group

Altria Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells smokeable and oral tobacco products in the United States. The company offers cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand; large cigars and pipe tobacco under the Black & Mild brand; moist smokeless tobacco and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands; oral nicotine pouches under the on! brand; and e-vapor products under the NJOY ACE brand.